Shop the Hangout

Hangout with your favorite designers and shop their latest collections – at
the same time.

The Story

To help brands combine their social media and e-commerce efforts, we
developed an exclusive shopping app for Google+ Hangouts On Air. Here
retailers can speak about their products while customers simultaneously
browse a curated selection of those goods, available for purchase through the
Hangout. The concept blends social video with shopping tools to help deepen
engagement between retailers and consumers.

Americans spent 121 billion minutes on social media sites and bought more
than $200 billion of goods online in 2012. We set out to use Google's digital
technologies in the social and commerce spaces to create a unique experience
that combines these two major online behaviors. Through a newly developed
feature for Google+ Hangouts on Air that allows apps to be built alongside
the Hangout UI, we were able to adapt Google Shopping Shortlists to work as
an app for viewers of a Hangout to watch and shop at the same time.

The Technology

Commerce

Google Shopping Shortlists

Social

The Results

Shoppable Hangouts was a successful collaboration between Google, the CFDA and a
group of designers, including Diane von Furstenberg, Rebecca Minkoff, Marcus
Wainwright, David Neville and Rachel Zoe. Collectively, the "Shop the Hangout"
pilot program has 150 million+ social media impressions, 65 million+ press
impressions and helped increase sales and traffic on partner designers'
e-commerce sites. Over 100 other retailers and brands are now requesting to use
the product.